Using information from user-video game interactions to target advertisements, such as advertisements to be served in video games for example

ABSTRACT

Information about a person&#39;s interests and gaming behavior may be determined by monitoring their online gaming activities (and perhaps making inferences from such activities). Such information may be used to improve ad targeting. For example, such information may used to target ads to be rendered in a video game being played by the person.

§ 1. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

§ 1.1 Field of the Invention

The present invention concerns targeting the serving of advertisements,such as advertisements to be rendered in virtual environments like videogames for example. In particular, the present invention concernsdetermining user information for use in targeting ads, and determiningand serving relevant ads in virtual environments such as video games.

§ 1.2 Background Information

In-game advertising is becoming extremely popular. This trend isexpected to continue since the 18 to 34 year old male demographic in theU.S. is watching less TV and spending more time playing video games thanever before. The video game industry is becoming a media force on parwith the television and motion picture industries. Consequently, adagencies and game producers are collaborating to introduce more ads intovideo games. Presently, in-game ads are used to advertise real productsand services in a manner analogous to product placement in movies andtelevision shows. For example, a decal on a virtual race car mayadvertise a product or service. As another example, a banner in astadium or on a race track may advertise a product or service.

Unfortunately, ads placed in various video games are typicallydetermined while the game is developed and are therefore relativelystatic. Further, the ads are typically targeted to a broad demographicgroup. Consequently, in-game ads are often not as relevant and useful asthey could be.

Another trend is that game producers are spending more money than beforeto develop video games. In the last generation of video game consoles(Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, etc) game developers hardlyreached the million dollar mark in development costs of a single videogame. Presently, low end games often cost a few millions of dollars todevelop, with high end games often costing even more. Game developmentcosts are increasing while game prices have hit a ceiling. Althoughin-game ads help game publishers offset such development costs, revenuefrom such advertising has not increased fast enough to keep pace withdevelopment costs.

In view of the foregoing, it would be useful to improve in-gameadvertising. One possible improvement would be to provide more usefuland relevant ads. Another possible improvement would be to increaseadvertising revenues.

§ 2. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments consistent with the present invention allow informationabout a person's interests and gaming behavior to be determined bymonitoring their online gaming activities (and perhaps making inferencesfrom such activities). Such information may be used to improve adtargeting. For example, such information may used to target ads to berendered in a video game being played by the person.

§ 3. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a bubble diagram of exemplary operations that may be performedin a manner consistent with the present invention, as well asinformation that may be used and/or generated by such operations.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing videogame selection and play (e.g., user-video game interaction) trackingoperations in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for performing ad spotfilling operations in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary system for performing ad serveoperations in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an exemplary apparatus that may performvarious operations in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a messaging diagram illustrating operations of an exemplarysystem consistent with the present invention.

§ 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention may involve novel methods, apparatus, messageformats, and/or data structures for improving ads, such as ads served invideo games for example, using information about a video game playerdetermined from their interactions with a video game. The followingdescription is presented to enable one skilled in the art to make anduse the invention, and is provided in the context of particularapplications and their requirements. Thus, the following description ofembodiments consistent with the present invention provides illustrationand description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit thepresent invention to the precise form disclosed. Various modificationsto the disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in theart, and the general principles set forth below may be applied to otherembodiments and applications. For example, although a series of acts maybe described with reference to a flow diagram, the order of acts maydiffer in other implementations when the performance of one act is notdependent on the completion of another act. Further, non-dependent actsmay be performed in parallel. No element, act or instruction used in thedescription should be construed as critical or essential to the presentinvention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, thearticle “a” is intended to include one or more items. Where only oneitem is intended, the term “one” or similar language is used. In thefollowing, “information” may refer to the actual information, or apointer to, identifier of, or location of such information. Thus, thepresent invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shownand the inventors regard their invention to include any patentablesubject matter described.

In the following definitions of terms that may be used in thespecification are provided in § 4.1. Then, environments in which, orwith which, the present invention may operate are described in § 4.2.Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in § 4.3.Thereafter, specific examples illustrating the utility of one exemplaryembodiment of the present invention are provided in § 4.4. Finally, someconclusions regarding the present invention are set forth in § 4.5.

§ 4.1 Definitions

Online ads may have various intrinsic features. Such features may bespecified by an application and/or an advertiser. These features arereferred to as “ad features” below. For example, in the case of a textad, ad features may include a title line, ad text, and an embedded link.In the case of an image ad, ad features may include images, executablecode, and an embedded link. Depending on the type of online ad, adfeatures may include one or more of the following: text, a link, anaudio file, a video file, an image file, executable code, embeddedinformation, etc. An image ad may be scaled, rotated, skewed, etc., asneeded, to fit within an ad spot.

When an online ad is served, one or more parameters may be used todescribe how, when, and/or where the ad was served. These parameters arereferred to as “serving parameters” below. Serving parameters mayinclude, for example, one or more of the following: features of(including information on) a video game or video game console (or moregenerally, “video game apparatus”) on which, or with which, the ad wasserved, or of a document on which, or with which, the ad was served,information in an ad request associated with the serving of the ad, auser characteristic (e.g., their geographic location, the language usedby the user, the type of browser used, previous page views, previousbehavior, user account, Web cookies, user device characteristics, etc.),a host or affiliate site (e.g., America Online, Google, Yahoo) thatinitiated the request, an absolute position of the ad on a screen orpage on which it was served, position of the ad within a video game inwhich the ad was served, a position (spatial or temporal) of the adrelative to other ads served, an absolute size of the ad, a size of thead relative to other ads, a color of the ad, a number of other adsserved, types of other ads served, time of day served, time of weekserved, time of year served, etc. Naturally, there are other servingparameters that may be used in the context of the invention.

Although serving parameters may be extrinsic to ad features, they may beassociated with an ad as serving conditions or constraints. When used asserving conditions or constraints, such serving parameters are referredto simply as “serving constraints” (or “targeting criteria”). Forexample, in some systems, an advertiser may be able to target theserving of its ad by specifying that it is only to be served onweekdays, no lower than a certain position, only to users in a certainlocation, etc. As another example, in some systems, an advertiser mightspecify that its ad is to be served in certain video games, or oncertain video game apparatus. As yet another example, in some systems,an advertiser might specify that its ad is to be served only to acertain type of user, or a user having certain attributes. As anotherexample, in some systems, an advertiser may specify that its ad is to beserved only if a page or search query includes certain keywords orphrases. As still yet another example, in some systems, an advertisermay specify that its ad is to be served only if a document, on which, orwith which, the ad is to be served, includes certain topics or concepts,or falls under a particular cluster or clusters, or some otherclassification or classifications (e.g., verticals). In some systems, anadvertiser may specify that its ad is to be served only to (or is not tobe served to) user devices having certain characteristics. Finally, insome systems an ad might be targeted so that it is served in response toa request sourced from a particular location, or in response to arequest concerning a particular location.

“Ad information” may include any combination of ad features, ad servingconstraints, information derivable from ad features or ad servingconstraints (referred to as “ad derived information”), and/orinformation related to the ad (referred to as “ad related information”),as well as an extension of such information (e.g., information derivedfrom ad related information).

The ratio of the number of selections (e.g., clickthroughs) of an ad tothe number of impressions of the ad (i.e., the number of times an ad isrendered) is defined as the “selection rate” (or “clickthrough rate” or“CTR”) of the ad.

A “conversion” is said to occur when a user consummates a transactionrelated to a previously served ad. What constitutes a conversion mayvary from case to case and can be determined in a variety of ways. Forexample, it may be the case that a conversion occurs when a user clickson an ad, is referred to the advertiser's Web page, and consummates apurchase there before leaving that Web page. Alternatively, a conversionmay be defined as a user being shown an ad, and making a purchase on theadvertiser's Web page within a predetermined time (e.g., seven days). Inyet another alternative, a conversion may be defined by an advertiser tobe any measurable/observable user action such as, for example,downloading a white paper, navigating to at least a given depth of aWebsite, viewing at least a certain number of Web pages, spending atleast a predetermined amount of time on a Website or Web page,registering on a Website, etc. Often, if user actions don't indicate aconsummated purchase, they may indicate a sales lead, although useractions constituting a conversion are not limited to this. Indeed, manyother definitions of what constitutes a conversion are possible.

The ratio of the number of conversions to the number of impressions ofthe ad (i.e., the number of times an ad is rendered) and the ratio ofthe number of conversions to the number of selections (or the number ofsome other earlier event) are both referred to as the “conversion rate”or “CR.” The type of conversion rate will be apparent from the contextin which it is used. If a conversion is defined to be able to occurwithin a predetermined time since the serving of an ad, one possibledefinition of the conversion rate might only consider ads that have beenserved more than the predetermined time in the past.

A “property” is something on which ads can be presented. A property mayinclude online content (e.g., a Website, an MP3 audio program, online(e.g., video) games, etc.), offline content (e.g., a video game playedin a video game apparatus that is not online, a newspaper, a magazine, atheatrical production, a concert, a sports event, etc.), and/or offlineobjects (e.g., a billboard, a stadium score board, and outfield wall,the side of truck trailer, etc.). Properties with content (e.g.,magazines, newspapers, Websites, email messages, etc.) may be referredto as “media properties.” Although properties may themselves be offline,pertinent information about a property (e.g., attribute(s), topic(s),concept(s), category(ies), keyword(s), relevancy information, type(s) ofads supported, etc.) may be available online. For example, an outdoorjazz music festival may have entered the topics “music” and “jazz”, thelocation of the concerts, the time of the concerts, artists scheduled toappear at the festival, and types of available ad spots (e.g., spots ina printed program, spots on a stage, spots on seat backs, audioannouncements of sponsors, etc.).

A “document” is to be broadly interpreted to include anymachine-readable and machine-storable work product. A document may be afile, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links toother files, a display screen or a video sequence (e.g., of a videogame), etc. The files may be of any type, such as text, audio, image,video, etc. Parts of a document to be rendered to an end user can bethought of as “content” of the document. A document may include“structured data” containing both content (words, pictures, etc.) andsome indication of the meaning of that content (for example, e-mailfields and associated data, HTML tags and associated data, etc.) Adspots in the document may be defined by embedded information orinstructions. In the context of the Internet, a common document is a Webpage. Web pages often include content and may include embeddedinformation (such as meta information, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embeddedinstructions (such as JavaScript, etc.). In many cases, a document hasan addressable storage location and can therefore be uniquely identifiedby this addressable location. A universal resource locator (URL) is anaddress used to access information on the Internet.

A “Web document” includes any document published on the Web. Examples ofWeb documents include, for example, a Website or a Web page.

“Document information” may include any information included in thedocument, information derivable from information included in thedocument (referred to as “document derived information”), and/orinformation related to the document (referred to as “document relatedinformation”), as well as an extensions of such information (e.g.,information derived from related information). An example of documentderived information is a classification based on textual content of adocument. Examples of document related information include documentinformation from other documents with links to the instant document, aswell as document information from other documents to which the instantdocument links.

Content from a document may be rendered on a “content renderingapplication or device”. Examples of content rendering applicationsinclude an Internet browser (e.g., Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Firefox,etc.), a media player (e.g., an MP3 player, a Realnetworks streamingaudio file player, etc.), a viewer (e.g., an Abobe Acrobat pdf reader),a video game apparatus (e.g., a video game console such as PlayStation2from Sony, XBox from Microsoft, GameCube from Nintendo, etc., a personalcomputer, a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant, etc.) etc.

A “content owner” is a person or entity that has some property right inthe content of a media property (e.g., document). A content owner may bean author of the content. In addition, or alternatively, a content ownermay have rights to reproduce the content, rights to prepare derivativeworks of the content, rights to display or perform the content publicly,and/or other proscribed rights in the content. Although a content servermight be a content owner in the content of the documents it serves, thisis not necessary. A “Web publisher” is an example of a content owner.

“User information” may include user behavior information and/or userprofile information.

§ 4.2 Exemplary Advertising Environments in which, or with which, thePresent Invention may Operate

FIG. 1 is a bubble diagram of exemplary operations that may be performedin a manner consistent with the present invention, as well asinformation that may be used and/or generated by such operations. Theenvironment 100 depicted in FIG. 1 may be used to determine relevant adsand/or select relevant ad creatives to be shown in or with video games.Alternatively, or in addition, the environment 100 depicted in FIG. 1may be used to track user-video game interaction information, where suchuser information may be used to help select relevant ads shown to auser, but not in a video game. The environment 100 may include game playtracking operations 114, ad spot filling operations 138 and ad servingoperations 170.

The game play tracking operations 114 may collect user input information118 and provide it to the ad spot filling operations 138. Furthermore,game state-based information 130 may also be provided to the ad spotfilling operations 138. Moreover, user information inference operations122 may be used to generate additional user information 126. Suchinferences may be made using user input information 118 and/or gamestate-based information 130. Finally, the video game apparatus 110 maystore other game information 134 such as console name or brand, aconsole identifier, a console location, (currently loaded) gameidentifier, etc. Using the game state-based information 130, the userinput information 118, the user information 126, and/or other gameinformation 134, the ad spot filling operations 138 may (i) generate arequest for relevant ads, (ii) forward the request to ad servingoperations 172 (through one or more networks 140) when an advertisementis to be displayed in the game, and (iii) render the ad(s) in one ormore ad spots within the video game.

Advertisers 150 may interact with an ad server 160 via ad informationentry and management operations 164 and networks 140 in order to submittheir advertisements and ad information. This information is stored asad information 168 and may include ad creatives, serving constraints,offer information, etc. The ad information entry and managementoperations 164 may inform the advertisers 150 of various game attributesto which their ads can be targeted.

The ad serving operations 172 may accept requests for ads from the adspot filling operations 138. Such requests may include game state-basedinformation 130, user input information 118, user information (local)126, and/or other game information 134, as well as other pertinentinformation (e.g., ad size, ad type, when the ad will be needed, etc.)necessary for proper ad selection and rendering (e.g., display, textdialog, audio segment, etc.). Using the request information from thegaming system, the ad serving operations 172 may select relevant adsand/or ad creatives from the ad information 168. If there are more thanone relevant ads competing for a given ad spot (or too many relevant adscompeting for a limited number of ad spots), the ad serving operations172 may run an arbitration to select the best ad or ads. Subsequently,the ad serving operations 172 may provide the ad spot filling operations138 with the selected ad(s) so that these ad(s) may be rendered in theappropriate ad spots within the video game.

The ad server may include accounting and/or billing operations 176 inaddition to the ad serving operations 172 and the ad information entryand management operations 164.

A user information server 180 may be provided to accept, perhapsgenerate, and store user information (remote) 188. User gameregistration operations 192 may accept and store user informationprovided in a game or game console product registration, or provided inan online gaming subscription registration. User information inferenceand storage operations 196 may infer certain attributes orcharacteristics of a user from user input information 118. The userinformation serving operations 184 may be used to provide userinformation 188 to a requesting entity. For example, the ad server 160might have a user identifier, but no information (or incompleteinformation) about a user. It may forward a request to the userinformation server 180, where the request includes a user identifier.The user information server 180 may use the user identifier to look uppertinent user information (remote) 188 and return it to the ad server160.

The game play tracking operations 114 may track game player (alsoreferred to as a “user”) input (e.g., play, selection, etc.) information118. For instance, in most simulation games as in a Formula One racinggame, a user may select a real world make/team of a car (e.g., Ferrari,Williams-BMW, McLaren-Mercedes, Renault, etc.), a particular driver(e.g., Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Rubens Barrichello, etc.) aswell as the racing track desired to compete in (e.g., MonteCarlo/Monaco, Nurburgring/Europe, Indianapolis/USA, etc.), car color,type of tires, etc. In other games, as in first person shooters, usersmay select their character's role such as a medic, a mercenary, anengineer, a warrior, a thief, a wizard, an alien, etc. In sports games,the user may select a team, a stadium, or even a player from real teamplayer rosters. Moreover, in many games, users may select the sex oftheir character, pre-defined personalities of their characters, attirefor their player(s), physical attributes of their players (fat, thin,muscular, tall, short, hair color and style, ethnicity, eye color,etc.), soundtrack and other sound/visual properties, and many othercustomizable features. Such selection inputs may be tracked by the gameplay tracking operations 114 and stored as user input information 118,which are then available to the ad spot filling operations 138.

Such user input information 118 may be used to help select relevant ads.As example one example, if a user selected a racing car from Dodge, thesystem may show a Dodge ad or something related. As another example, ifthe user selected a sports team from Miami, the system may show ads fortickets for events in Miami. As another example, if a user selected asoundtrack of “Beastie Boys” in a video game, the system may suggest adsfor rap/hip hop and other related music, not Britney Spears. As yetanother example, if a user selected a black car to drive in a racinggame, the system may show ads with black cars, instead of car in othercolors. As still yet anther example, if the user selected a malecharacter, the system may show ads tailored to males. If the user hasbeen playing for over two hours continuously, the system may display adsfor pizza-hut, coke, coffee and other related goods.

Game state-based information 120 may include information about theuser's game-play. For example it may include, how fast the players aregoing through the levels, how familiar the players are with the game,what level are the players in (i.e., in many games players attain levelsof skill as they play along and become more experienced; for example a99^(th) level wizard in a role playing game), how long have the playersbeen playing the game, how frequently the user plays various games,play-pause habits, game information stored to non-volatile memory, etc.The game state-based information 130 may include session information(start time, play duration, etc.). This game state-based information 130is then available to the ad spot filling operations 138. For example, ifthe user has been playing for over two hours continuously, the systemmay display ads for pizza-hut, coke, coffee and other related goods.

The user information inference operations (local and/or remote) 122and/or 184 may use user input information 118 to infer attributes of theuser 126 and/or 188. Such inferred user information 126 and/or 188 maythen be used when selecting eligible ad(s) in accordance with targetingattributes of the ads. The play characteristics of users, particularlyin online RPG games (e.g., time spent chatting with other virtualplayers versus fighting, time spent bartering versus stealing, timespent exploring versus building, time spent trying new items versuscompleting levels, decisions made by players leading to certainsituations (good versus bad, strategic versus short term), avoidingconflict (risk averse) versus being aggressive, cooperating andcollaborating versus doing things alone, friendly versus hostile, etc.)may be particularly useful. User input information may be useful to helpinfer information about a user. Some other examples user informationthat may be inferred includes familiarity with a game(s), time spentplaying a game(s), how fast is the user advancing and/or skill level,etc. Inferences drawn from such user input information may be made usingknown classification means such as neural networks, Bayesian networks,support vector machines, etc. Such inferred user information may beuseful to help target ads. For instance, users that spend a long timebartering instead of stealing in a game may suggests that they areinterested in the best deals rather than the flashiest items so thesystem may show ads reflecting value. As another example, users thatspend a lot of time exploring suggest that they maybe interested invacations, so the system may show ads for vacations. As another example,users that spend a lot of time chatting instead of fighting orperforming other activities in online games suggest that they like tochat, so the system may show ads for cell phones, ads for long distanceplans, chat messengers, etc.

To summarize, the ad spot filling operations 138 are responsible forrequesting ads by the ad server and subsequently providing the ad forrendering on the ad spot. In particular whenever an ad is to bedisplayed in the game, the ad spot filling operations 138 may submit arequest an ad serving operations 172. The request may include userinformation (Recall, e.g., 118 and 126.), game information (Recall,e.g., 130 and 134.), characteristics (e.g., type, size, etc.) of the adthat is to be delivered, an identifier for the game console 110, etc.Instances where ads may be displayed or otherwise rendered in videogames are numerous. For instance, in a first person shooter, ads couldbe displayed at vending machines, billboards, posters on walls, a TVscreen that the character walks by, etc. In racing games, advertisementscould be placed on the car or on signage or billboards along the streetsand racetracks, or maybe even announced on the virtual radio of the carthat the player is driving. In many sports games, advertisements may bedisplayed on score boards and along the sidelines of the court/field.Ads may be inserted as textual or spoke dialog, as an audio clip in avirtual radio, etc. In online action-adventure and role playing games(RPGs), it is common to simulate real world-like environments wheregamers may roam vast environments thereby providing numerous locationswhere ads might be displayed. For instance, gamers may roam and interactthrough large city markets (e.g., stop for food at a McDonalds, get ahaircut, go to a night club for drinks, buy a car, buy property, movethrough the city using a cab/bus/subway, buy goods from various stores,play a video game in an arcade, etc.), thus providing many potentialspots where ads might be displayed just as in real city markets.

Thus, the ad serving operations 172 may be used to select appropriate,relevant, ads and may use attributes and pertinent information gatheredduring game play. Such ad serving operation 172 may also use offerinformation (e.g., bids) submitted by the advertisers 160 along withtheir ads to select winning ads when multiple eligible ads compete foran ad spot (or too few ad spots). Once the winning ad(s) has beenselected, the ad serving operations 172 may return the ads back to thead spot filling operations 138 for rendering in the video game.

§ 4.3 Exemplary Embodiments

§ 4.3.1 Exemplary Methods

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 200 for performingselection and play tracking operations in a manner consistent with thepresent invention. Specifically, the method 200 may be used to monitorand store information about how a user plays and interacts with a videogame(s). (Recall FIG. 1, 130.) Various actions may be performed by themethod 200 depending on various events that may occur. (Block 210) Whena gaming system (e.g., Sony PlayStation, Nintendo GameCube, MicrosoftXbox, a PC, etc.) is powered on, the method 200 may start sessiontracking. (Block 220) Conversely, when a gaming system is powered off orshut down, the method 200 may end the session tracking (Block 230) andstore and/or transmit the session information (Block 240). During thepower-on state, user inputs occur. In response, the method 200 may tracksuch user input. (Block 250) The method may use the user input to inferuser information. (Block 260) Subsequently, the method 200 may storeand/or transmit the information about the user input and/or inferreduser information for further use. (Block 270)

Referring back to blocks 220, 230 and 250, the method 200 may monitorthe user's selections and game play every time a gaming system is inoperation. Specifically, the method 200 may start a session tracking(begin monitoring and collecting user information) every time a gamingsystem is powered on. When a player turns off the gaming system, themethod 200 may end the session tracking and store/transmit the sessioninformation collected during the operation of the gaming system. Sessioninformation may include, for example, a game identifier, a start time, apause time(s), etc.

Referring back to blocks 250, 260 and 270, the method 200 may simplytrack user inputs, but may also use the inputs of the user to infer userinformation/characteristics. User input may include user selections,user dialog, user play, etc. User selections may include, for example,one or more of characters, vehicles (e.g., a specific make of anautomobile, car color, engine modifications, car modifications, etc.),tracks, courses or fields (e.g., a specific racetrack, a specificstadium, etc.), teams, players, attire, physical attributes, etc. Thereare many customizations a user may select from depending on the genre ofthe game. These selections may reflect the user's fondness, preferences,and/or interests. User dialog (e.g., from role playing games, simulationgames, etc.) may be used to characterize the user (e.g., literate orilliterate, profane, blunt, or polite, quiet or chatty, etc.). Also,user play may be used to characterize the user (e.g., cautious,strategic, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy,honest, dishonest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc.).

As will be described in more detail below, the user input and/orinferred user information may be used to select ads more relevant to theuser.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 300 for performing adspot filling operations in a manner consistent with the presentinvention. The ad spot filling operations are responsible for requestingin-game ad(s) as well as receiving the requested ad(s) and renderingthem in the appropriate spots within the video game. Different branchesof the method 300 are performed in response to different events. (Block310) Specifically, if an ad (or ads) is desired (to be rendered in thegame), the method 300 may obtain the ad spot information (Block 320) andat least one of (A) game state-based information, (B) user inputinformation, (C) user information, and (D) other game information.(Block 330) Finally, the method 300 may generate a request for one ormore ads. The request may include the ad spot information, and at leastone of (A) game state-based information, (B) user input information, (C)user information, and (D) other game information. (Block 340) Referringback to block 310, the method 300 may also receive one or more requestedad(s) (e.g., from the ad server). If so, the method 300 may proceed toplace the ad(s) in the appropriate ad spot(s) for rendering.

Referring back to the right branch of FIG. 3, ads may be desired atvarious times. For example, ads may be desired at one or more of (a) atpower up, (b) at game load, (c) during play, (d) as need, (e) prior topredicted need, etc.

Referring back to block 320, the ad spot information may include an adspot identifier, ad size, ad type, ad duration, etc. Referring back toblock 330, the game state-based information may include information suchas that described above with reference to 130 of FIG. 1, the user inputinformation may include information such as that described above withreference to 118 of FIG. 1, the user information may include informationsuch as that described above with reference to 126 of FIG. 1, and theother game information may include information such as that describedabove with reference to 134 of FIG. 1.

Referring back to block 340, once the method 300 has obtained thepertinent information mentioned above, it may proceed to request adsfrom an ad server. The ad server uses the information included in therequest to determine eligible, relevant ads. If there are too manyeligible, relevant ads for a given ad spot(s), the ad server mayarbitrate among the competing ads (e.g., using an auction). Thedetermined ad(s) is returned back to method 300 wherein it issubsequently rendered in the appropriate ad spot.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary method 400 for performing adserving operations in a manner consistent with the present invention.The method 400 is responsible for providing requested ads to gamingsystems. Specifically, the method 400 may accept an ad request from agaming system. (Block 420) Upon receiving such a request, the method 400may determine one or more ads using at least one of (A) userinformation, (B) game state-based information, (C) user inputinformation, (D) other information, and (E) ad spot information, perhapsin connection with ad serving constraints. Once the ad or ads have beendetermined, the method 400 may forward the ad(s) back to the gamingsystem. (Block 460)

Referring back to block 440, the user information may include userinformation stored on the game system. Alternatively, or in additionuser information from another source may be used. (Recall, e.g., 188 ofFIG. 1). That is, the ad server might have sent a request for userinformation, where the request includes a user identifier, or a gamingsystem identifier.

Further, the method 400 may perform arbitration operations in order todetermine winning ads among a number of competing ads since there may betoo many ads contending for too few ad spots. Hence, advertisers maysubmit offer information (e.g., bids) along with their ads. As a result,when selecting ads, the method 400 may consider the user information,game state-based information, user input information, ad spotinformation and/or other information to determine relevant ads, and thenuse offer information, perhaps in addition to other factors, to score orrank the relevant ads.

§ 4.3.2 Exemplary Apparatus

FIG. 5 is high-level block diagram of a machine 500 that may perform oneor more of the operations discussed above. The machine 500 basicallyincludes one or more processors 510, one or more input/output interfaceunits 530, one or more storage devices 520, and one or more system busesand/or networks 540 for facilitating the communication of informationamong the coupled elements. One or more input devices 532 and one ormore output devices 534 may be coupled with the one or more input/outputinterfaces 530.

The one or more processors 510 may execute machine-executableinstructions (e.g., C or C++ running on the Solaris operating systemavailable from Sun Microsystems Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. or the Linuxoperating system widely available from a number of vendors such as RedHat, Inc. of Durham, N.C.) to effect one or more aspects of the presentinvention. At least a portion of the machine executable instructions maybe stored (temporarily or more permanently) on the one or more storagedevices 520 and/or may be received from an external source via one ormore input interface units 530.

In one embodiment, the machine 500 may be one or more conventionalpersonal computers, and/or one or more video game apparatus (i.e., anydevice on which a video game may be played such as, for example, a videogame console, a personal computer, a mobile phone, a personal digitalassistant, etc.). In this case, the processing units 510 may be one ormore microprocessors. The bus 540 may include a system bus. The storagedevices 520 may include system memory, such as read only memory (ROM)and/or random access memory (RAM). The storage devices 520 may alsoinclude a hard disk drive for reading from and writing to a hard disk, amagnetic disk drive for reading from or writing to a (e.g., removable)magnetic disk, and an optical disk drive for reading from or writing toa removable (magneto-) optical disk such as a compact disk or other(magneto-) optical media.

A user may enter commands and information into the personal computerthrough input devices 532, such as a keyboard and pointing device (e.g.,a mouse) for example. Other input devices such as a microphone, ajoystick, a game pad, a satellite dish, a scanner, or the like, may also(or alternatively) be included. These and other input devices are oftenconnected to the processing unit(s) 510 through an appropriate interface530 coupled to the system bus 540. The output devices 534 may include amonitor or other type of display device, which may also be connected tothe system bus 540 via an appropriate interface. In addition to (orinstead of) the monitor, the personal computer may include other(peripheral) output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printersfor example.

§ 4.3.3 Alternatives and Extensions

The methods for targeting online in-game ads is not limited by themethods described above. There could be a number of different ways andvariations to the aforementioned for targeting online in-game ads. Forinstance, one could just simply target ads based on the type of the gameand the expected demographics. Eligible ads could be selected using anarbitration process, such as an auction for example.

Although some of the embodiments described above facilitated (A)tracking user input or interaction with a video game (and perhapsinferring user information from such user input), and (B) dynamicallydetermining ads, perhaps (C) using user information, embodimentsconsistent with the present invention need not perform all of thesefunctions. Indeed, various embodiments consistent with the presentinvention may employ only one or perhaps two of these features. Forexample, at least some embodiments consistent with the present inventionmay track user video game inputs (and perhaps infer use information fromsuch user input) and use such user information for other purposes, suchas targeting ads not rendered in the video game. As another example,user information gathered or inferred from video game inputs orinteractions need not be considered when determining an ad(s) relevantto an ad spot in a video game. That is, some embodiments consistent withthe present invention may only dynamically determine ads for a videogame (or an instance thereof) without any relevance information providedfrom a particular video game console. As yet another example, userinformation from some other source may be used to target ads to ad spotsin a video game being played on a gaming system associated with theuser. Other combinations of these features are possible.

According to the aforementioned, the system may collect informationabout a user's game-play behavior. Examples of information that could beuseful, particularly in massive multiplayer online RPG's, may be thespecific dialogue entered by the users while chatting or interactingwith other players/characters within the game. For example, the dialoguecould indicate that the player is aggressive, profane, polite, literate,illiterate, influenced by current culture or subculture, etc. Alsodecisions made by the players may provide more information such aswhether the player is a risk taker, risk averse, aggressive, passive,intelligent, follower, leader, etc. This information may be used andanalyzed in order to help select and deliver more relevant ads to users.

Furthermore, although ad creatives may be images akin to banner ads, thesystem may use ad creatives that are text and speech of a character thatthe player may interact with. For instance, in the popular game seriesSimms, a character that a user interacts with may suggest (as anadvertisement) to listen to the newly released Coldplay album. The usermay reply positively (if given a choice) and listen to clips from thenew Coldplay album. As another example in a car racing game, after auser crashes his Honda civic, an announcer could be used to advertise bysaying for instance “if he had a Hummer, he would have gotten the betterof that altercation”, etc.

Users' inputs may imply a positive or negative response to anadvertisement. For example, in a Simms type game, the ad might be acharacter saying “What to listen to the new Coldplay album.” A responsesuch as “yes”, “sure”, “absolutely”, “you bet”, etc. could indicate apositive user response to the ad (like a selection of a text or bannerad on a Webpage), while a response such as “no”, “nah”, etc. couldindicate a negative user response to the ad (like clicking the close boxof an ad on a Webpage). Such user-ad actions may be tracked and used forvarious purposes such as billing, billing conditions, ad scoring, etc.For example, a rate of a particular user action or group of actions withrespect to ad impressions can be tracked and used in a manner similar toad selection rates, and/or ad conversion rates.

Games may already have ads in place. For example, games may come withhundred or even thousand of ads of all different types already installedor loaded. This may be used to ensure that there will always beavailable ads to display in the game and not interfere with gameplaysince there could be circumstances wherein, ads may not be returned soonenough, the gaming system is offline, a desired degree of relevancycould not be determined, etc. These ads may be shipped with targetingcriteria and may be selected for ad display by a “lightweight” virtualad server running on the user's gaming system to emulate how ads wouldbe selected by a real ad server from a gaming system connected online.Thus, ads, and perhaps targeting criteria and other ad information, maybe provided on the same storage media (e.g., CD, ROM, DVD, etc.) as thevideo game.

All popular current generation video consoles (i.e., Playstation, Xbox,Gamecube, etc) use games shipped on non-writable optical disk media(i.e., CD, DVD, BD, etc) hence, game state-based information and userinformation are saved onto memory cards (or some other non-volatile,readable and writable memory means) utilized by the consoles. Thisallows players to save their game and continue perhaps at a later time.These memory cards allow players to store game information from manydifferent games depending on the memory capacity of the card. Typically,dozens of games may be saved. Such saved information may be thought ofstate information, and offers a valuable source of information to theadvertisers and the present invention. Specifically, by examining agaming system's memory card every time a player connects online, thepresent invention (system) may examine the player's gaming history andstored status information. This may provide a large amount ofinformation that may be used to better target ads to the user. Games theuser is currently active and interested in can be determined. Forinstance, if a user has saved information from ten games and eight outof the ten games are racing games, then it may be inferred that theplayer is a racing fanatic and might find car-related ads, ads for otherracing games the player might not have played already, etc., useful. Thesystem could even examine the game state-based and user information ofthe various games saved on the memory card. For example, if it is foundthat the player is mostly racing with a BMW and generally Germanautomobiles throughout the saved racing games on the memory card, thenit might be inferred that the user is a BWM and German automobileaficionado, and may find ads for such cars useful. As can be appreciatedfrom the foregoing, by examining a gaming system's memory card(s),useful insights about the user may be gained.

Although many of the exemplary embodiments described above concernedvideo games, embodiments consistent with the present invention may beused in other virtual environments or immersive environments.

§ 4.4 Examples of Operations in an Exemplary Embodiment Consistent withthe Present Invention

FIG. 6 is a messaging diagram illustrating operations of an exemplarysystem consistent with the present invention. When generating a requestto fill an ad spot, ad spot filling operations 138 may accept gameinformation 610 as indicated by 620. The game information 610 mayinclude one or more of user input information 118, game state-basedinformation 130, other game information 134 and user information (local)126. The ad spot filling operations 138 may generate an ad requestincluding at least some of the ad information 610. The request mayinclude other pertinent information about the ad spot to be filled(e.g., ad type, number of ads, when needed, etc.). As indicated by 630,the ad request is forwarded to ad serving operations 172. The ad servingoperations 172 may simply use the information included in the request630, as well as ad information 168, as indicated by 670 and 680, togenerate one or more relevant ads. The ad(s) may then be returned to thead spot filling operations 138 as indicated by 690.

Note that the ad serving operations 172 may also query the userinformation serving operations 184 as indicated by 640. User informationserving operations 184 may obtain requested user information (remote)188 as indicated by 650 and provide the requested user information(remote) back to the ad serving operations 172 as indicated by 660.

The game information may be different for different users. Consider, forexample, a virtual racing video game used by three (3) users—A, B, andC. Suppose that user A selects an outdoor, dirt, 4×4 course, selects ayellow H2 Hummer, selects a male driver, and drives aggressively duringthe race. Suppose, that user B selects a city race, selects a tunedToyota Supra in multi-color with a pink base, selects a female driver,and drives in a neutral manner during the race. Finally, suppose thatuser C selects a World Cup Race track in Madrid Spain, selects an AudiR8R in multi-color, selects a male driver, and drives in a strategicmanner during the race.

Given the assumptions in the foregoing example, suppose that Dodge wantsto place an advertisement. It may have various alternative ads withdifferent serving constraints or targeting criteria. Suppose furtherthat it has a variable color, with a default value. Thus, the system mayshow a “Dodge RAM-Tough Truck” ad creative with a yellow truck to userA, a “Dodge Neon Sport” ad creative with a pink car to user B, and a“Dodge Viper” ad creative with a Dodge Viper in a default color to userC. Suppose that a ticket broker wants to advertise tickets for variousevents. Three ads for three events, each having different servingconstraints or targeting criteria, may be—tickets for an NFL footballgame, tickets for a Gwen Steffani concert, and tickets for the US OpenGolf Tournament. Thus, the system may show the ad creative for the NFLfootball game tickets to user A, the ad creative for the Gwen Steffaniconcert tickets to user B, and the ad creative for tickets for the USOpen Golf Tournament to user C. As a final example, suppose that thereare different ad creatives for different television shows. An adcreative for the TV show “Fear Factor” may be shown to user A, an adcreative for the TV show “American Idol” may be shown to user B, and anad creative for the “Nightly Business Report” may be shown to user C. Asthese examples, demonstrate, embodiments consistent with the presentinvention may be used to serve more relevant and more useful ads tovideo game players. Such ads may be rendered on ad spots within thevideo games, though they may be rendered on ad spots on other documentsinstead or in addition.

§ 4.5 Conclusions

As can be appreciated from the foregoing, embodiments consistent withthe present invention may be used to target in-game ads and serve morerelevant and useful ads. Embodiments consistent with the presentinvention may monitor user video game inputs to improve ad targeting andprovide more relevant and useful ads to the users.

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: a) generating an adrequest, wherein the ad request includes video game information; b)transmitting the ad request to an ad server; c) determining at least onead responsive to the ad request using at least the video gameinformation included in the ad request; d) transmitting the at least onead to a video game apparatus; and e) rendering the at least one ad in avideo game being played by the video game apparatus.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the video gameinformation included in the ad request includes video game state-basedinformation.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein thevideo game information included in the ad request includes userinteractions with the video game.
 4. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 3 wherein the user interactions with the video game include atleast one of (A) user video game character selections, (B) user videogame character apparel selections, and (C) user video game characterphysical attribute selections.
 5. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 3 wherein the user interactions with the video game include atleast one of (A) user video game team selections, (B) user video gamesports player selections, and (C) user video game stadium selections. 6.The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the video gameinformation included in the ad request includes video game apparatuslocation information.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1wherein the video game information included in the ad request includesan identifier of a video game being played.
 8. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 1 further comprising: tracking at least one of userselections and user game play; and inferring user characteristics fromthe tracked at least one user selections and user game play, wherein thead request includes at least some of the inferred user characteristics.9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the act ofinferring user characteristics occurs on the video game apparatus. 10.The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the act of inferringuser characteristics occurs on a system remote from the video gamesystem.
 11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the videogame information is session information.
 12. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 11 wherein the session information includes at least oneof (A) start times, (B) stop times, and (C) pause times.
 13. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the act of determining atleast one ad includes determining, from a plurality of ads includingtargeting information, at least one relevant ad using the targetinginformation and the video game information.
 14. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 13 wherein the targeting information includes a videogame identifier.
 15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 whereinthe targeting information includes a video game type or genre.
 16. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein the targetinginformation includes video game apparatus location information.
 17. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein the targetinginformation includes at least one of time and date information.
 18. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 13 wherein the targetinginformation includes user information.
 19. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 13 includes the act of determining at least one adfurther includes scoring each of the at least one relevant ad, andselecting the at least one ad from the ad least one relevant ad usingthe score.
 20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19 wherein eachof the relevant ads has offer information, and wherein the act ofscoring each of the at least one relevant ad uses the offer information.21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20 wherein the offerinformation is an offer per ad impression in a video game.
 22. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the act of transmittingthe ad request to the ad server occurs after the video game system isturned on and responsive to the video game system being turned on. 23.The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the act oftransmitting the ad request is responsive to an ad spot becomingavailable imminently.
 24. The computer-implemented method of claim 1wherein the act of transmitting the ad request is responsive to an adspot becoming available with more than a predetermined probability. 25.The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the video gameinformation includes information for more than one video game.
 26. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the video gameinformation includes information, stored on a non-volatile readable andwriteable memory means residing with a video game apparatus, for morethan one video game.
 27. The computer-implemented method of claim 1wherein the ad server resides on the video game apparatus, and whereinthe act of determining at least one ad responsive to the ad requestusing at least the video game information included in the ad request isperformed on the video game apparatus resident ad server.
 28. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 27 wherein the at least one addetermined responsive to the ad request is selected from a group of adsprovided on a computer-readable medium on which the video game is alsostored.
 29. A computer-implemented method comprising: a) tracking atleast one of user selections and user play in the context of a videogame; b) inferring user characteristics from the tracked at least oneuser selections and user game play; and c) determining ads relevant tothe user using the inferred user characteristics.
 30. Acomputer-implemented method comprising: a) generating an ad request,wherein the ad request includes video game information; b) transmittingthe ad request to an ad server; c) receiving at least one ad that wasdetermined using at least the video game information included in the adrequest; and d) rendering the at least one ad in a video game beingplayed by the video game apparatus.
 31. A computer-implemented methodcomprising: a) accepting an ad request, wherein the ad request includesvideo game information; b) determining at least one ad responsive to thead request using at least the video game information included in the adrequest; and c) transmitting the at least one ad to a video gameapparatus for rendering in a video game being played by the video gameapparatus.
 32. Apparatus comprising: a) means for accepting an adrequest, wherein the ad request includes video game information; b)means for determining at least one ad responsive to the ad request usingat least the video game information included in the ad request; and c)means for transmitting the at least one ad to a video game apparatus forrendering in a video game being played by the video game apparatus. 33.A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executableinstructions which, when executed by a computer, perform acts of: a)accepting an ad request, wherein the ad request includes video gameinformation; b) determining at least one ad responsive to the ad requestusing at least the video game information included in the ad request;and c) transmitting the at least one ad to a video game apparatus forrendering in a video game being played by the video game apparatus.